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SUMMARY OF YOUR FCRA RIGHTS

Because your credit report contains private information about you, it is important that you know your legal rights as a consumer. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and state laws restrict who has access to your sensitive credit information and what uses can be made of it.

Basically, Your Rights as a Consumer Include:

Obtaining a copy of your credit report (for free, in certain circumstances)
Knowing who has received a copy of your report or inquired about it
Disputing inaccurate information
Having negative information on your report explained
"Opting-Out" to prevent credit agencies from using your information for marketing purposes
Contacting the appropriate government agency or filing a lawsuit

Information That Can Be Included in Your Credit Report:

Your identifying information
Your employment/salary information
Credit information (applications for credit cards, payment history, etc.)
Public record information
Late payments reported by utility companies, hospitals, landlords and others
Overdrawn accounts reported by banks
Late credit card, auto loan, mortgage payments reported by banks
Delinquent child support payments
Debts being collected by collection agencies

Information That Is Not Included:

Your race
Your religion
Your current health or medical history
Your driving record
Your criminal record
Your political preference
Notice of bankruptcy (Chapter 11) that is more than 10 years old
Debts that are more than 7 years old

When you order a copy of your credit report from a credit reporting agency, it will include information about who has requested a copy of your report or inquired about your file in the last six months. Inquiries related to pre-approved offers, as well as inquiries you make yourself, are not available to credit grantors, but are included in the credit reports you order for yourself.

Who Can Access Credit Reports?
Anyone with an FCRA permissible purpose, such as:

Potential lenders
Landlords
Insurance companies
Employers & potential employers (usually only with your written consent)
Companies with which you have a credit account for account monitoring purposes
Entities considering your application for a government license or benefit (if the agency must consider your financial status)
A state or local child support enforcement agency
Any government agency (name, address, former addresses, current & former employees)
Someone to whom you have instructed the credit reporting agency to provide a credit report on you.

By law, you are entitled to a copy of your credit report by mail or online. A charge under $10 is usually incurred. Certain states (Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont) offer your first copy free and in Georgia there are two free copies.

What Is the Cost of a Personal Credit File Disclosure?

Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont- Free
Maine and Minnesota $3.00
Connecticut $5.00
California $8.00
Montana $8.50
All other states $9.00

In certain circumstances, however, you are entitled to a free report no matter where you live. These circumstances are:

If you are unemployed and intend to apply for unemployment in the next 60 days

If you are on public welfare assistance

If you have reason to believe your file contains inaccurate information due to fraud

If you have been the subject of an adverse decision, such as denial of credit, insurance or employment within the past 60 days

Correcting Errors
Both state and federal laws give you the right to dispute information in your credit file in order to have errors corrected. To do this:

Notify the credit reporting agency (CRA) of your dispute (each CRA has a toll-free number for this purpose).

The agency then contacts the source of the disputed information and must correct any errors.

If disputed information on your report cannot be verified, it must be deleted.

If you disagree with the result of the CRA's investigation, you have the right to submit a 100-word explanation and this explanation must be included in your credit file.

Check your credit file periodically to see that information that has been removed has not been re-inserted. (Deleted information may not be re-inserted into your file unless the agency takes steps to have the source of the information certify that it is complete and accurate.)

Contact a credit bureau directly:

Experian National 
P.O. Box 9595
Allen, TX 75013-0036 888-397-3742

Trans Union LLC
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022 800-888-4213

Equifax 

PO Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374 800-685-111

Annualcreditreport.com offers all three credit reports free once a year. To order your credit reports online simply go the website.